Coors overshadows Helton's .400 chase
When Ted Williams became the last player to hit above .400, in 1941, he received little media attention. Perhaps it was because Billy Terry of the New York Giants had hit .401 just 11 years earlier, or because Joe DiMaggio was in the midst of a record 56-game hitting streak that year.
Similarly, despite his lofty .393 batting average and MVP-caliber season, Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton hasn’t been getting much national press. But the attention will surely come, and the pressure on Helton will be great.
The consensus is that hitting in Coors Field gives Helton a huge advantage in his journey toward the .400 mark. But is it that big of a factor? No.
Nobody ever says, “Ted Williams hit .406, but it really isn’t that special because he did it in Fenway Park.” Nor does anyone question the achievement of Wade Boggs’ 3,000 hits, despite the fact that most them came in hitter-friendly Fenway.
Last year, and in 1998, nobody put an asterisk next to Sammy Sosa’s 63- and 65-home run seasons, even though he played in the small confines of Wrigley Field. And George Brett, the last player to flirt with .400 this late in the season, does not have that 1980 season of his downplayed, despite that he played most of his games on astroturf, where ground balls have a better chance of becoming base hits because of the fast surface.
Sure, Coors Field gives Helton somewhat of an advantage. To deny the ballpark factors into some of his .394 batting average would be naïve. But even more naïve would be to give the ballpark too much credit. The disparity between Helton’s home and away splits aren’t that striking. He is hitting .425 at home, and .360 on the road. Some imbalance between home and away averages is common, since most hitters do better at home than on the road. What’s incredible is that Helton’s .360 road batting average is better than any other National Leaguer’s total batting average.
A hit is a hit
But a base hit has stayed pure, and it is in part due to the aesthetics of baseball. The wholesomness of a base hit is part of the reason why Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak was so spellbinding, and why hitting .400 has become such a prestigious feat. Whether the balls or the players are juiced, it takes a quality hitter like Helton to be able to consistently hit the ball on a line, drive it into the gaps or into a part of the outfield where no outfielder can catch the ball on the fly, or drive the balls just beyond the reach of opposing infielders.
Can he hit .400?
One thing that Helton has going for him is that he is a patient hitter. He is fourth in the National League in walks, which means that he won’t have to sustain too many at-bats through the course of the season. When Williams hit .406 in ’41, he led the league in walks that year with 145. Impatience has worked against Nomar Garciaparra this year, as he seemed to be in contention for a possible run at .400 as August began, but soon faded from the picture. It is much easier to maintain a .400 batting average when you have 456 at-bats like Williams had in ’41, than to hit for that mark with 568 at-bats like Helton’s teammate, Larry Walker, attempted to do in ’97.
The Rockies play 19 of their final 32 games in Coors Field. They won’t see another playoff-contending club (unless the Los Angeles Dodgers get hot) until September 24, which means that Helton will see plenty of pitches to hit, as the other teams won’t care so vigorously about their won-loss records.
However, the Rockies finish the season with four games against Arizona and three games against Atlanta, the teams with the top two pitching staffs in the league. Serious playoff implications will likely be at hand, which could result in Arizona and Atlanta pitching around Helton, which could hurt him if he is hovering just below .400 at season’s end.
But for you critics who will continue to obsess over the Coors Field factor, Helton’s last three games will be on the road.
And the road ahead could lead to a historic season for Helton.
BEN BADLER
Some of the media has already taken note of Helton’s pursuit of Williams’ 59 year-old record. But much of the hoopla around Helton has been surrounding not the phenomenal year of Helton, but the ballpark in which he plays. That, of course, is Coors Field, a park that caters to hitters and has ruined the ERAs of many pitchers.
Helton can become the second player in history to hit .400 and hit 40 home runs. Rogers Hornsby accomplished the feat in 1922 for the St. Louis Browns.
No matter what ballpark you’re in, a hit is a hit. (By the way, Helton also leads the NL in hits, as well as slugging percentage, on-base percentage, total bases, doubles, hits, runs and RBIs.) Though home runs travel out of ballparks at an alarming rate, with more home run records being broken than can be documented, a hit has always been a hit. A 20-win season by a pitcher means something different than it did 20 years ago, and especially 70 years ago. If a pitcher wins 300 games in his career today, it means something much different than it did in the past. If a hitter ever reaches the 50-homer plateau in his career, much less if he does it multiple times, it means far less today than it did in the past.
In a word, yes. But it isn’t quite that clear cut.